DOE Selects NRG for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Demo

Mar 12, 2010

The U.S. Department of Energy selected NRG to receive up to $154 million, including funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to build a post-combustion carbon capture demonstration unit at NRG’s Washington Parish plant southwest of Houston, Texas.

The proposed project was submitted under the Clean Coal Power Initiative Program (CCPI), a cost-shared collaboration between the federal government and private industry to demonstrate low-emission carbon capture and storage technologies in advanced coal-based power generation. The goal of CCPI is to accelerate the readiness of advanced coal technologies for commercial deployment, ensuring that the United States has clean, reliable, and affordable electricity and power.

“The DOE recognizes the need to put a high priority on funding clean coal projects in order to substantially reduce the carbon intensity of existing fossil fueled electricity production,” said David Crane, president and chief executive officer
of NRG Energy. “Development and deployment of these carbon capture technologies at scale, not only in the United States but also worldwide as well, is essential if we are to meet successfully the challenge of global climate change. We’re excited about working with the DOE on this important project.”

Scheduled to begin operating in 2013, NRG’s demonstration project will be among the first of its kind. It will use Fluor Corporation’s advanced Econamine FG Plussm technology to process flue gas from the plant equal in quantity to that of a 60 megawatt unit. It will be designed to capture 90 percent of incoming carbon dioxide, or approximately 400,000 metric tons of CO2 annually—a level that can further advance the technology’s viability on a larger scale. Once captured, the CO2 will be compressed and used in enhanced oilfield recovery operations.

Carbon capture technology is part of NRG’s clean energy portfolio that includes nuclear, onshore wind, offshore wind and solar that will help the company meet future energy production and environmental sustainability goals.

NRG Energy, Inc., a Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500, owns and operates one of the country’s largest and most diverse power generation portfolios. Headquartered in Princeton, N.J., the company’s power plants provide more than 24,000 megawatts of generation capacity—enough to supply more than 20 million homes. NRG’s retail business, Reliant Energy, serves more than 1.6 million residential, business, commercial and industrial customers in Texas.